9/12

Perhaps if I dug around in the shoeboxes in the spare wardrobe, I'd find my 2001 diary and be able to tell you what I did on the 11th of September.  However, not knowing is almost a blessing.  

On our side of the international date line, it was probably just ordinary day, nothing too memorable.  I would have gone to work, raced home, had a quick dinner then being a Tuesday, attended my Meisner class in the evening.  Like I said, just another day.

However while I slept, terrorists without warning, bent the world over and dealt to the whole entire planet.  Not once, but four horrific times.

On the morning of the 12th of September, I didn't turn on the tv to watch the breakfast news.  My mobile phone was on silent, and I didn't have a landline in my little apartment.  I just puddled around getting ready for work oblivious to the carnage caused in the outside world.  Just as I was about to race out the door, I flicked on the tv to check the weather forecast.

Cue HORROR. I sat aghast on the couch, not believing what I was watching. I grabbed my mobile from my bag and saw a myriad of missed calls.  My mum, my sister, other family members, my best friends, my colleagues...everyone.

I remember nearly every detail of the remainder of the day.  The Auckland Home Show had finished a week or so beforehand, I was scheduled to follow up some prospects. 

On this particular day, the owners of a business were fairly sure that cash was being stolen and they wanted me to quote on covert cameras to watch over the cash register.  From our perspective, the job was a simple one and I just needed to complete the quote in order to get a tech in there to wire up the job.

I drove to the business in question.  It was in an industrial area and looked like any other business.  Oh, did I mention that it was a brothel?  Sorry, I mean "a Gentlemens Club" (you say tomato...).

I waited in the library for the proprietor (Miss Scarlett in the Library with the Candlestick).  Through some partially opened sliding doors, I could see the girls painting their toenails, reading the Herald and of course watching CNN.  I literally had to pull myself together in order to feign interest in the job I was quoting.

I'm not sure if the owner (a very smart young business woman) was trying to put me at ease or what, but she proceeded to take me on a tour of three of their four theme rooms - an aquarium room (thank god Goldfish only have a 10-second memory span), a grotto with the bed built into a cave and a jail complete with bars and handcuffs.  The fourth room was occupied (at 9.30am so I couldn't be shown through that one). From memory, it was African themed. Rawr.

Every time we passed the lounge with the partially opened doors, I was torn between looking at the girls and staring at the big blaring tv.   

Eventually, I had all the info I needed, and went out to lunch in a restaurant where again the tv was blaring.  I ordered a Caesar Salad, and didn't even start it.

Elvis, Diana, Michael Jackson - I know where I was and what I was doing on hearing of their passing.  Those stories are fairly vanilla.  But jeepers, where was I during 9/11 (US time)?  That story is far from vanilla, and not one I generally share when people are playing "remember when".

I can't really say to people "Oh, 9/11? I was at a Gentlemens Club in Auckland being thankful that the African-themed room had sound-proofing".